New Testament

A few years back, I thought about Jesus' parable in Matthew 18:21-35.

Notes from a sermon preached on 20th May 2018 (Pentecost Sunday 2018), based on John 16:12-15.

Paul Barnett has written (paid link) a very helpful, carefully applied, commentary (paid link) on 1 Corinthians.

Matthew and Mark both record two feeding miracles. In Matthew 14:13-21 we have the feeding of the 5000; in Matthew 15:21-29 we have the feeding of the 4000.

Angels don't normally have names in the New Testament. Why does Luke tell us that it was the angel Gabriel who appeared to Mary? Let's think this through.

I'll just park this here for future reference.

Sometimes you see writers say that certain parts of the Bible are written in the "apocalyptic" style of writing.

Recognising the "genre" of part of the Bible can be very important when it comes to reading it properly. For instance, parables and historical narrative communicate in very different ways; you'd completely misread the gospels if you confused them.

Here, once again, is David Gooding, in his book True to the Faith (paid link).

Read this slowly, let it sink in, and take time to enjoy the amazing mercy and grace of God shown that first Pentecost:

Why Pentecost? Why did the Spirit come on the church on that day in particular?

It's a good question. Jesus ascended on a Thursday; the Spirit did not come for another 10 days. Why the wait? Jesus only said that they'd have to wait for "a few days", but 10 is longer than it might have been.

Perhaps it was just expedient. There would be multi-national crowds in Jerusalem over the Pentecost festival, making it a perfect time for them to hear the wonders of God in their own tongues.

Maybe.

On Easter Sunday, I preached on Romans 8:18-30.

There wasn't time in that service to set those glorious verses in their full context in the book of Romans.

I often tell people that we need to listen to the gospel writers whenever we read the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke or John are teaching us something by recording the things they do. We need to let them do that. The words Jesus spoke within the gospels were spoken to other characters in the narrative, not to us directly. Our job is not to apply those words to us, but to ask what the gospel writer is wishing to communicate by recording those words in the setting they occur in.